ERIO at the European Parliament's Public Hearing on the Framework Decision on Combating Racism and Xenophobia

On 19th March, 2007, ERIO attended a Public Hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels where the Framework Decision on Combating Racism and Xenophobia was presented. The hearing opened with an introduction from Jean-Marie Cavada, Chairman of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and Martine Roure, the European Parliament's Reporter on the Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia, who both thanked the German Presidency for bringing the question of racism and xenophobia back to the negotiating table as a priority in its term. The origin and context of the proposal was put forward, and this was followed by two panel discussions and a lively debate in which representatives from NGOs expressed their criticisms and comments. The first panel discussion examined the balance between freedom of expression and condemnation of speeches inciting hatred, whilst the second explored genocide denial and incitement to racial hatred. A wide range of speakers, from European institutions, national governments, non-governmental organisations, and other professionals and experts in the field, addressed the hearing.
NGO representatives put forward their criticism of the Framework Decision in the debate. They stressed that there was a clear need for a European approach to the disturbing resurgence of racism in the Member States, many referring to the normalisation of political parties with far right wing agendas who preached hate speech directed at Roma, immigrants, Muslims, and Jews, among others. Hate speech can not be regarded as an expression of ideas or another side of the debate, and the proposal to criminalise incitement to racial hatred and violence was seen as an important step forward in protecting minority and victim rights.
Read more on: http://www.erionet.org/pressreleases.html

CoE - FCNM : Advisory Committee visits UK

Strasbourg 19.3.2007 - A delegation of the Advisory Committee on the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities is visiting the United Kingdom this week from 19-24 March 2007 in the context of the monitoring of the implementation of this convention in the United Kingdom. The visit is the 19th country visit conducted by the Advisory Committee in the second cycle of monitoring. The Committee is composed of 18 independent experts elected by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The United Kingdom submitted its second state report under the Framework Convention in February 2007, and the delegation of the Advisory Committee will be in the United Kingdom in order to seek further information. On the basis of this and other information, the Advisory Committee will subsequently adopt an opinion on how the United Kingdom has implemented the various articles of the Framework Convention. The delegation includes the following members of the Advisory Committee: Mr. Ivan GARVALOV (Bulgaria), Ms. Marju LAURISTIN (Estonia) and Ms. Eva SMITH-ASMUSSEN (Denmark), and will be assisted by Ms Elena JURADO of the Secretariat of the Framework Convention.

http://www.coe.int/minorities

UN Funds for Center of Roma Social Support

Tirgu Mures - Social Support Center for Romas worth $87,000 was inaugurated on March 15 in Tirgu Mures (central Romania), built following the cooperation agreement between Mures County Council and the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP). The project in Tirgu Mures supports the implementation of the County Strategy for Roma Status Improvement. This is the third of the five centers to be developed in Romania, grounding on the pattern of a pilot project in Marasesti town, Vrancea County (eastern Romania). The project aims to set up social service centers in communities with a high percentage of Roma population. They will be counseled in medical issues, including family planning, will receive support for family medic registration, will benefit from computer literacy training, and will train mediators in sanitary and entrepreneurial services. Source: Divers

The Roma in Turkey: On the Report of the US Department of State

National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities: The law provides a single nationality designation for all citizens and does not recognize ethnic groups as national, racial, or ethnic minorities. Citizens of Kurdish origin constituted a large ethnic and linguistic group. Millions of the country's citizens identified themselves as Kurds and spoke Kurdish. Kurds who publicly or politically asserted their Kurdish identity or publicly espoused using Kurdish in the public domain risked censure, harassment, or prosecution (see sections 2.a. and 2.b.). The government maintained significant restrictions on the use of Kurdish and other ethnic minority languages in radio and television broadcasts and in publications (see section 2.a.). The Ministry of Education did not respond to the HRA's 2005 letter requesting that it remove the book On This Path from of its reading curriculum list. The HRA protested that the book had racist statements about Armenians, including, "Are you human, you Armenian?" At year's end the HRA was not able to confirm whether the ministry removed the book. A number of private Kurdish language courses closed during the year, citing a lack of students. Kurdish rights advocates said many Kurds could not afford to enroll in private classes. They also maintained that many potential applicants were intimidated because authorities required those enrolling in the courses to provide extensive documents, including police records that were not required for other courses. They maintained that the requirements intimidated prospective applicants, who feared police were keeping records on students taking the courses. The International Romani Studies Network (IRSN) reported that Roma faced significant discrimination, and the national media consistently portrayed them in ways that supported negative stereotypes. IRSN reported that Roma were more consistently undereducated and underemployed, suffered much higher levels of ill-health, higher incidences of discrimination based on ethnicity, and had poorer housing than any other group in the country. The Roma have organized 18 associations and two federations in 12 provinces with the purpose of combating these problems, developing Romani culture, and improving the self-image of Romani youth. According to the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), a family of Roma in the central eastern city of Afyon faced mob violence on April 29, after a court released two Romani youths who had been arrested for alleged abuse of female students. The ERRC reported that the school director confronted the two Roma in a bazaar, and along with vendors burned the Romanis' car. After the Romani youths fled to their home, a crowd gathered and began to beat the Roma present. When the Roma fled to another house, the crowd followed and burned the house and several other Romani houses. Police again took the two Romani youths into custody. No one had been arrested for the reported attacks at year's end. Urban development projects in several cities have adversely affected some Turkish citizens, including Roma. For example, according to the ERRC, on July 13 municipal authorities in the Fatih District of Istanbul signed an agreement with the Turkish Public Housing Administration to immediately demolish 529 apartments in a predominantly Romani neighbourhood. Roma community members stated that they were never informed of the decision, which they learned of from television news reports. The families reportedly have not been offered compensation or assistance and cannot afford to buy new houses. The law states that "nomadic Gypsies" are among the four categories of people not admissible as immigrants. EXCEPT FROM: Turkey. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2006. Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour. March 6, 2007 http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/

Solidarity for Roma in Ghent

Brussels - Supporters of the Roma in Ghent, who have had nowhere to go for weeks, are camped out in front of the doors of the OCMW (Public Centre for Social Welfare) in Ghent until Tuesday evening. The demonstrators are sleeping in tents to put pressure on the vote tomorrow on a proposal from the Groen! Party. The agenda contains a proposal that urges for concrete measures to improve the situation of Roma families. The Roma are homeless and have moved several times since October 2006. They are now squatting in buildings. The former OCMW council already rejected the proposal from council member Dirk Holemans (Groen!) to give the 50 Roma a rent guarantee and a reference address. The demonstrators now hope the council will approve the proposal on the agenda for tomorrow. The Roma were evicted from the buildings where they were squatting in mid October to make way for an urban renewal project and have not had any permanent place to stay since.
Source: Expatica News 2007

Kosovo: over 100 displaced Roma return to their homes in Mitrovica

Some 120 displaced Roma have returned to their place of origin in Roma Mahala, in mainly-Albanian Mitrovica South, from which they were forced to flee in 1999 during the conflict between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs. This return is the result of a combined UN and NGO reconstruction project in cooperation with local authorities and represents the largest urban return project in Kosovo. The project will allow the return of more than 500 displaced Roma out of the 8,000 living in Roma Mahala before the conflict. It was designed under pressure for the rapid relocation of some of the 500 Roma IDPs who had been suffering from lead poisoning in the camps where they had been living since 1999. The UN Representative on the Human Rights of IDPs, Walter Kalin, in 2005 and the Human Rights Committee in its concluding observations of 2006 had urged the evacuation of those contaminated camps.
Source: IDP News Alert, 16 March 2007

NGO Training on the CoE Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities: The Framework Convention as an Advocacy Tool

Strasbourg, 16 - 20 June 2007 Call for Applications The Secretariat of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Directorate General of Human Rights of the Council of Europe and Minority Rights Group International are organising a training session for NGOs on the use of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities as an advocacy tool. This training session will be held in Strasbourg, France, from 16 to 20 June 2007. The training session will aim to support and strengthen NGO participation in the Framework Convention monitoring process and to ensure its effective implementation in the field. Countries covered: The NGO training sessions have traditionally focused on selected countries, according to the stage of the Framework Convention monitoring process in respect of the countries concerned. Accordingly, this year's training will involve NGOs from Albania, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine. Participants: Participation of 15 NGO representatives from the above target countries is expected. Participants will be selected on the basis of their organisation's institutional capacity and commitment to raising awareness of minority rights and monitoring the implementation of international instruments, specifically the Framework Convention. Participants will also be selected on the basis of their own professional experience. Applications: To apply, please complete the application form and return to MRG.Europe@mrgmail.org by 16 April 2007.
The application form is available from http://www.erionet.org/www.coe.int/minorities%20and%20http://www.minorityrights.org/htdocs/admin/Download/word&excel/2007_FCNM_Application_Form.doc. Group applications will not be considered. Candidates will be notified by 25 April 2007. Successful candidates are expected to confirm their participation by 30 April 2007.

Working Folk: Images of Shutka
A day in the life of Skopje's most famous suburb by Dana Wilson and Adem Ademi 19 March 2007 http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=209&NrSection=3&NrArticle=18399